Durante’s partner took a picture of the disassembled rifle with a small digital camera. Then he stepped back for a wider shot of the Viper seated at the metal table with the case on the table in front of her.
“I suspect that if we bothered to examine this weapon, we will find that it was recently fired,” Durante said. “Our sources have obtained a copy of the ballistics report from the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security. They removed a distinctive nine-millimeter tungsten tipped armor piercing round of Russian manufacture from Pablo Muňoz’s body. I’ll even go as far as to predict that we’d find that this weapon was involved in the shootings in Panama City. My agency is hearing through its sources in Bogotá that Muňoz was a Colombian asset. No doubt the Colombians will pay handsomely for any information about his death.”
Arianna rolled her eyes.
The implication was clear. Durante possessed leverage to use against her, or at least he thought he did. She didn’t understand to what end, though. He’d never before made or implied outright threats toward her.
She realized it could only mean one thing. Somehow, politics had become involved, and Caracas was trying to cover its ass.
“Am I being detained, Durante?”
“In a manner of speaking,” the Venezuelan replied. “Don’t worry. I won’t delay you for long. My orders are to take you to the Iranian, that’s the arrangement I have with General Flores, but first I need to discuss something with you and make certain conditions known. What I am about to say is on behalf of the chief of my agency.”
“I’m listening.”
The Viper expected that Durante wanted money and waited to hear his price. SEBIN officers were well known for their corruption, and Durante was no exception. In the past, he’d provided her with passports, weapons, and logistical support, like moving equipment in diplomatic pouches, but it always came at a cost. Despite the leftist Bolivarian rhetoric of their political leaders, SEBIN was actually quite capitalistic and opportunistic.
Like so many men, Durante had once sought the use of Arianna’s body in return for his assistance, but she had made clear in no uncertain terms that he should remove the idea from his mind, lest she remove something else from him. Her body had been for Aarón alone, and now that he was gone, Arianna did not believe she would ever share herself with another man. Most men, in fact, disgusted her just for being male.
So like most men, if sex was not available, Durante happily accepted cash as the next best thing, although at inflated rates.
“I must make absolutely clear to you, Senorita Viper, that when your business here is finished, you will no longer be welcome in Venezuela. That is, if you intend on going through with this insanity and diverting Estragos to the United States.”
Arianna had not expected that. The resentment and animosity swelled within her. “So you’ve spoken with Andrés Flores.” She thought that for an intelligence chief, Flores did a bad job keeping secrets. “And what else has the self-styled general told you?”
“I know enough, and my service is kept well-informed. You’ve been an occasionally useful asset, Senorita Moreno, but after today, the relationship between my agency and yourself is over, and it will be as if it never existed. If you ever return to Venezuela, or enter a Venezuelan embassy abroad, or threaten to compromise my agency’s operations or my government’s political standing, you will be regarded as hostile agent, a terrorist and an international fugitive, which, let’s be honest, is exactly what you are. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela neither supports nor condones terrorism.”
“Is this a threat, Durante? You should know that I do not respond well to threats, especially not from sniveling apparatchiki who are incapable of actually following through or posing a threat to me.”
“A friendly warning, but take it how you please.”
And the Viper understood full well how to take it.
After she commenced her assault against America, she would become the most wanted person in the world. If she re-entered Venezuela after that, SEBIN would be obligated to take action and couldn’t feign ignorance of her presence. The last thing the Venezuelan president needed was to be accused of being complicit in terrorist attacks against the United States or harboring those responsible.
But the Venezuelan government also couldn’t risk taking her alive.
There would be complications with the Americans or the Colombians demanding extradition, and her past connections to SEBIN could prove politically embarrassing if they ever came to light during interrogation sessions by the intelligence services of either nation.
Another concern was that she would attempt to blackmail Caracas into providing her sanctuary.
So the threat was quite implicit. If she returned to Venezuela, Durante would make her disappear.
The Viper expected no less from the Venezuelans. They’d never been true allies. They simply resented Colombia for being a close American partner, and Caracas only used FARC when it served Venezuelan interests to do so.
The good news was that the Viper, to a certain extent, could at least count on Venezuela not to betray her to the Americans, unless she violated the terms that Durante had just laid out for her. There existed absolutely no intelligence sharing between Washington and Caracas. Far as the Americans were concerned, SEBIN was a hostile intelligence service.
“We know that you were responsible for the stupid and pointless violence in Panama City,” Durante continued. “You’re becoming reckless and what you intend for the United State is absolute insanity. My government will have no part in it. We are in fact taking a considerable risk as it is merely by facilitating your transaction with the Iranian, but that is really none of our business.”
It was a calculated risk, Durante didn’t need to mention. The missiles couldn’t be traced back to either Iran or Venezuela. And only certain factions within SEBIN had knowledge of Plan Estragos.
“You may not believe it,” Durante added, “but this is a more than fair arrangement, especially considering that I can have you arrested right now and rid my government of the burden you pose. We go our separate ways. You leave us alone, and we in turn leave you alone. As a courtesy and a show of good faith, we will allow you to retain ownership of the passports and legends my agency has provided and backstopped for you, and we will not compromise those identities in the manhunt that will surely unfold.”
The fact that Durante even mentioned that implied a threat, the Viper realized. She’d need to discard her Venezuelan-supplied travel documents.
“As another sign of good faith, and hopefully to discourage you,” Durante continued, “I will also tell you that according to signals intelligence provided by the Russians, the Americans know you are coming, and they are already looking for you, with help from their loyal Colombian dogs. The intelligent thing to do would be to abort and forget about all of this, but I know you will not do that.”
Russia had recently re-opened the Cold War-era Lourdes SIGINT station near Havana, once the largest signals intelligence facility in the world. Over the past forty-eight hours, Lourdes observed a surge in message traffic amongst American embassies, CIA bases, and SOUTHCOM facilities pertaining to the Viper, and the Russians had shared this information with Caracas.
Durante studied Arianna Moreno closely for several seconds but was unable to gauge her reaction. “Do you understand the situation?”
The Viper fought to contain her vitriol. She didn’t give a damn if she ever returned to Venezuela or if SEBIN threw her to the wolves. But it was the principal of the matter. At that moment, she wanted badly to slice Durante’s throat open.